Carole Edrich Weblog

spindance

With the wind blowing hard it didn't seem sensible to ride the tow paths (my preference). Replacing the risk of being blown into the canals by one of being blown into fast moving traffic was not really a choice. While not the same as a 3 hour return trip to a meeting or coffee, a spin class was surely better than nothing.

Spin classes have always seemed to be far more dance than sport. While the individual chooses how much they do, the leader sets the session's shape, choosing pace, movement and style. This is done by taking the group through different exercise profiles to the rhythm of the music that has been selected in advance.

Spin gym
photo (c) Carole Edrich, 2007

In common with others I like to start well before the formal class. About 12 of us were already spinning when we were told that our leader couldn’t make it and that no substitute could be found. We were left with a choice; keep spinning 'solo', join the boxercise class, train with weights or just leave.

My enthusiasm soon waned. Spinning is not like cycling outdoors; there’s no scenery, no unanticipated obstacles and no sense of approaching a goal. Even with music it was quite boring and could have better been done back at home alone, with a book or watching TV.

Spinning’s not cycling. It’s a social activity and time passes faster because the session is led by the person who has crafted the exercise to fit the music. That needs a choreographer, rhythm and a group acting in concert.

spinning
photo (c) Carole Edrich, 2007

Luckily one of our number eventually volunteered. Despite competing with the music (no-one knew how the voice mike worked), Ed had a good sense of rhythm, worked well with the beat (a case of ‘needs must’, I suspect) put a shape to our dance and a rhythm to our pace. His choreography was ambitious for someone with no previous experience but 30 minutes with him passed much faster than the first half-hour with no leader at all.

While chatting in the changing rooms after the class, Eddie agreed that spinning is more like dance and took my theory one step further. While running the London Marathon she found that when she could hear music her steps took its rhythm and the distance passed easily. Out of hearing distance it was harder, she lost the rhythm and felt as if she was running through treacle.

Do professional runners hear music as they go or is their own pace sufficient rhythm in itself? Thus begins the development of another feature. It’ll be fun to work the rest of it out.

lost?

Already on sale at Marks and Spencer, copies of the Argentine Tango CD to which I contributed have finally arrived. Since it’s difficult to imagine that two could have disappeared from the package without any appearance of tampering, the discrepancy between the number promised and received is probably an oversight. Hopefully the email reminder to Universal Music won’t disappear into the ether and the others will arrive soon, enabling me to meet my commitments.

Argentine Tango CD cover
photo (c) Carole Edrich, 2007

After a visit to the Daily Telegraph Adventure Travel and Sports Show (it’s important to maintain relationships with existing contacts as well as look for new adventure travel ideas) I stopped researching the A-Z of Social Dance to find a piece written in October on lobbying for dance for Ballet.co.uk. Sadly the high resolution versions of the photos I took are nowhere to be found, but Bruce seems happy enough with the low-res ones posted to my Moblog at the time.

Adventure Travel Show Brochure
photo (c) Carole Edrich, 2007

Maybe the Dance Manifesto transcripts that went to DanceUK were lost in the same way as those to Bruce because they can’t be found on their website. I sent the documents a second time some three months later and was relieved to receive acknowledgements from both Bruce and Caroline.

I’ll spend the next couple of days updating this blog. The pieces for this were never lost, just drafted and left unfinished.

project to programme

A career in writing couldn't be feasible if the time spent on each project wasn't matched to its potential reward. Sometimes I get so enthusiastic about an idea and so intent on researching and writing it well that it's tempting to let commercial realities fall by the wayside. At these times the disciplines of structured thinking, project and programme management become as valuable now as when I used to run my consultancy.

That's why I resigned as editor of Flamenco News last year. A realistic structured review showed it wasn't commercially sensible to stay. The same logic has lead to the planning of an ambitious programme of work based on the coming Sadlers Wells Flamenco Festival even though covering the entire thing is so exhausting.

Summer’s Flamenco News
photo (c) Carole Edrich and Donna Desborough, 2006

I love the dance and the music, in-depth research and watching the audience and it's hard to beat the pleasure that comes when the words flow well. But it’s business sense that makes me wring as much as I can from the same event. My work gets organised with the same structure as Sadlers Wells; a programme with a set of objectives rather than a project with one. So although I’m no longer editor of Flamenco News I’ll cover the whole thing for Dance Today, will probably review individual performances and workshops for ballet.co.uk, have pitches out on five very different stories and two flamenco bailaora’s profiles and; time permitting, will blog it here as well.

Isabel Bayón
photo (c) Sadlers Wells, 2006

Performances at Lilian Baylis and Sadlers Wells auditoria overlap so it's not possible to see every production. However I will see Estrella Morente , Carmen Cortés and Joaquín Grillo , Escuela de Baile and both a performance and Master Class with Isabel Bayón giving more than enough material for the successful realisation of my programme objectives.

During the festival I’ll cover 8 performances, 1 lecture, 3 workshops, 2 interviews with performers, a Master Class and a Juerga as well as take a look at what goes on behind the scenes. But that’s not all. To write properly about the organisation of the festival it’s important to interview a number of different Sadlers Wells people, the promoters and those involved in the production and stage management.

Prestigious publications expect unique quality images to go with exclusive stories so good photographers are as important as the ideas. The complexity of the festival combined with the number of different pieces I plan to write means structured programme management is also vital even though two photographer friends are interested and most staff can be interviewed before the festival begins.

Although the scale of my plans for the Sadlers Wells Flamenco Festival have grown from project to programme, those now responsible for Flamenco News have taken the opposite course of action. Faced with the same economic and time constraints that prompted my decision to leave, the Peña committee has changed their quarterly magazine to a thrice yearly newsletter with a different production team, quality and aspirations.

I see nothing about the next issue on the Peña website so maybe their copy deadlines went the way of my lost Dance Manifesto piece. Editing even a newsletter is more complicated and fraught than you'd think and I wish them well in the realisation of their objectives.

More dance definitions here